Fluorite (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

The Okorusu Mine is one of the premier localities for Fluorite in the modern era of mineral collecting. It's quite possible that every color of the rainbow has been observed in Okorusu Fluorites, including colorless and black. This piece is from a find in the late 1990s. It hosts many superb quality, very sharp, GEMMY, multicolor cubic crystals measuring up to 1.5 cm on edge free of matrix. When backlit you will see the crystals contain a mixture of purple and blue hues with minor spots of green color. I can't find any major damage of note with the naked eye on the front / display side of the piece, though a few imperfections are visible on the back/base where the piece was separated from the pocket wall. With a loupe I was able to see some small thin prismatic Quartz crystals for a nice touch. Valued at $950. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #13689CL. Chet was born 1947 in started collecting minerals circa 1957. He worked briefly as a drill runner at the famous Sterling Mine, in Ogdensburg, New Jersey and from 1987 to 1990 he helped convert the mine into a public access mining museum. He has held the role of treasurer, vice president and president of the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society (FOMS), and has been a board member and vice president of the Franklin Mineral Museum. The rare copper arsenate, Lemanskiite was named in his honor in 1999.